Florida Property Auction Updates.

May 16th 2009
 
Blue Springs Auction: (Scheduled)

    * Large Acreage Lots
    * Opening bids of $25 K to $29 K
    * There are two homes for sale too.
    * There are 28 lots to be sold.
    * 10 of the lots will be sold “Absolute”
    * The event will be held on site.
    * Register: http://www.britishhomesgroup.com/florida-property-auctions.php

Town Homes in Melbourne: (In process)

    * Numerous “fee simple” town homes.
    * Two car garages in each of the units.
    * Previously sold in the Mid $400’s
    * Opening bids of $95,000 for each.
    * Luxury finishes (granite and crown moldings)
    * Adjacent to the Intracoastal Waterway
    * Auction tentatively scheduled for May 30th
    * Register: http://www.britishhomesgroup.com/florida-property-auctions.php

Future auctions to include condos on both the east and west coasts of Florida, as well as some single family homes near the Disney World location.

Resgister to receive auction updates: http://www.britishhomesgroup.com/florida-property-auctions.php

DEAL OF THE WEEK

20% Deposit for International Buyers

Bank owned move-in condition! IMMEDIATE OCCUPANCY! Ready to move in. Spacious two story with bonus room (ideal for office). All bedrooms on 2nd floor, nice master suite with walk-in closet, large master bath with garden tub and double vanities, gourmet kitchen with all appliances, lots of cabinetry and counterspace, separate tiled breakfast area overlooking backyard. Formal living and dining rms, great family room that opens to kitchen, inside laundry room with access door to side yard, double car garage, close to shopping and restaurants.

Enquire About this property: More Information

Request a customized property search

If you are currently considering buying a home in or around Orlando, recent statistics and an article in today’s Orlando Sentinel reveal that the ‘Timing is looking Good’.

Auctions, short sales, foreclosures and just plain and simple ‘too good to miss bargains’ are attracting investors, hedgefunds and first time buyers from all areas of the globe. Lenders are being more responsive with their short sale process and some are even offering 100% financing if you buy their own bank owned properties.

Existing-home sales in the region have started rising again compared with a year ago. And half the deals involve bank-owned foreclosures or “short sales” — properties for which the bank has agreed to take less than the amount owed on the mortgage.

48 percent of sellers nationally are now getting multiple purchase offers for a single property, nearly double the 25 percent rate during the same period last year.

The Orlando Realtors’ foreclosure analysis, released Monday, showed for the first time the extent of distress sales in the local market. Of the 1,653 homes sold by the association’s member agents in the core Orlando market last month, 700 were bank-owned.

Read the full article here…

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-bizdistress16041609apr16,0,4691113.story

According to a recent article on Forbes.com, buyers are returning to the British property market.

Low interest rates, great property prices and a general feeling that the bottom is reached or very close, is motivating action before sales prices start to climb.

In a recent survey of the sector, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said buyer enthusiasm increased for the fifth straight month in March, with London picking up particularly sharply.

This pickup in inquiries is feeding through into sales, RICS said, even though they remain at historically low levels.

“Buyer interest is starting to gain real momentum but will remain frustrated while mortgage finance is scarce,” said Ian Perry, a spokesman at RICS.

The RICS survey adds to the evidence that the British housing market may have bottomed out. The Nationwide building society said house prices actually increased in March for the first time since October 2007, while the Bank of England revealed that the number of mortgages approved in February rose by 19 percent to their highest level since May 2008.

Read the full article here…

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/04/15/ap6291961.html

Home prices in and around Orlando are down, interest rates are down and for the seventh straight month in a row sales are up.

Some recent statistics from the Orlando Business Journal in an article by Anjali Fluker are very encouraging for sellers and buyers alike…

• Home sales in the Orlando market jumped nearly 48 percent, but values fell by nearly 40 percent, according to the March report from the Orlando Regional Realtor Association.
• Association members reported 1,653 existing home sales in March, compared with 1,120 in the same month a year prior.
• Realtors also put 2,956 homes under contract last month, a far cry from March 2008’s 1,679.
• Association members also reported 4,906 pending sales — considered a leading indicator of future sales — in March, more than double March 2009’s 2,398.
• March home resales in the Orlando area — Lake, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties — jumped nearly 58 percent, from 1,354 homes last year to 2,139 homes this year.
• Osceola County saw the biggest increase in sales at 112 percent, from 466 homes sold in March 2008 to 989 sold last month. Orange County saw the next largest jump at nearly 61 percent, from 1,667 last year to 2,681 this year, followed by Lake County’s 21.5 percent increase, from 657 last year to 798 this year, and Seminole’s nearly 5 percent jump, from 679 to 713.
• The association reported that 49 percent of the homes that were sold being bank-owned or distressed homes. There were 700 bank-owned home sales last month with a median price of $95,000, along with 111 distressed home resales with a median price of $143,500.
• Homes of all types spent an average of 104 days on the market before being sold last month, down from an average of 128 days in March 2008.
• The average home sold for nearly 92.6 percent of its listing price in March 2009, slightly down from the 93.1 percent posted in the same month last year.
• March inventory of homes available reflects a nearly 13-month supply at the sales pace, down from the nearly 17-month supply recorded in February 2009.
• Orlando-area condo sales saw a huge increase 228 percent last month — from 90 in 2008 to 295 this year.

If you are considering buying a home in Florida, please complete this short form for a customised porperty search  - http://www.britishhomesgroup.com/floridaforeclosures.php or call 0800 096 5989.

Read the full article here…

http://orlando.bizjournals.com/orlando/stories/2009/04/13/daily7.html

UPDATED APRIL 16TH 2009 - THIS PROPERTY HAS SOLD.

DEAL OF THE WEEK 

20% Deposit For Foreign Nationals

Bank owned move-in condition! Spacious 2 story, family size kitchen with abundance of cabinets and counterspace, pantry, separate breakfast area. Family room opens to kitchen with glass slider opening to patio area. Large master suite with walkin closets, garden tub w/large shower, double vanities. Bonus room is ideal for office or children’s play room. All bedrooms on 2nd floor. Close to shopping.

Enquire About this property: More Information

Request a customized property search

The coaster is scheduled to open in May and will feature a Manta-ray theme coaster in which guests will fly face-down in horizontal position.

SeaWorld Orlando guests might catch their first glimpses of the new Manta roller coaster in action when its three trains are tested on the rails already snaking through the theme park.

The trains, which seat 32 passengers apiece and are fronted by a 12-foot manta design overhead, are tucked away in a maintenance building on the site. Construction of Manta, an inverted flying roller coaster that incorporates an enormous aquarium in its queue at SeaWorld, is on track for its official opening May 22.

“It’s like the homestretch for us we’re about 2 months away from wrapping it up,” said Brian Morrow, director of design and engineering, during a walk-through of the area Wednesday. The sea life including 3,000 animals will be moved into the aquarium in about three weeks, Morrow said. “We’re putting in landscaping, so that’s an indication that we’re very far along in our attraction,” he said.

Manta, very visible from the park entrance, will be a major addition just before a peak tourism season threatened by difficult economic times. The ride has been planned for years. “We just keep trucking ahead because we’re really looking for this ride to be an important asset to SeaWorld Orlando,” Morrow said.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will open the floodgates for new H-1B visa petitions today, 1st April 2009.

The USCIS announced additional requirements for employers, who receive funds through the Troubled Asset Relief Programme (TARP) or under section 13 of the Federal Reserve Act (covered funding), before they may hire a foreign national to work in the H-1B specialty occupation category.

The new ‘Employ American Workers Act’ (EAWA), which was signed into law by President Obama as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on 17th February, has been designed so that companies receiving covered funding do not displace US workers.

Under the EAWA legislation any company that has received (covered) funding from the government and seeks to hire new H-1B workers is considered an ‘H-1B dependent employer’. Such employers must make additional guarantees to the US Department of Labour (DOL) when filing a Labour Condition Application.

For more information, visit the USCIS website www.uscis.gov or sign up for our immigration newsletter on www.eb5investmentvisas.com

Do you have an expiring H-1B visa? Please contact us about the EB-5 as an alternative pathway to continue living and working in the US.

info@eb5investmentvisas.com

DOLLAR RETURNS TO FAVOUR

Renewed nervousness about financial institutions sparks another flight to safety. Failed gilt auction trips sterling. UK inflation refuses to die.

Having failed twice in the previous couple of days sterling eventually managed to break above $1.46 on Tuesday. It made it as far at $1.4750 before heading lower again. By the end of Friday it was down to $1.43 and it lost further ground this morning. When London opened it was trading at $1.4150.

Much as they had done during the previous couple of weeks, investors paid far more attention to politico-economic events and developments than they did to the boring old economic data - even when they were not so boring. There was one exception on Tuesday with the UK inflation numbers. Analysts and the media had confidently predicted that Retail Price Index inflation would be a negative number for the first time since 1960. In the event, editors had to tear up their pre-prepared deflation stories when RPI rose by 0.6% on the year. The Consumer Price Index was an even bigger surprise, rising by an annual 3.2% that left it still above its target range.

The CBI’s Distributive Trades Survey on Wednesday prepared investors for a dismal showing by the official Retail Sales figures. It was just as well; sales fell by 1.9% in February, four times as much as expected. Friday’s final revision to fourth quarter GDP was less of a disappointment. The 1.6% quarterly decline was very close to the earlier estimate of -1.5% and therefore not something to agitate the market.

What did get investors ticking was the “failure” of a 40-year government bond auction. With £1.75 billion of gilts on offer there were bids for only £1.63 billion. Various excuses were offered, principle among which was the fact that the 40-year issue would not be eligible for the Bank of England’s buy-back programme. Commentators were dubious at the time but a successful auction of 13-year index-linked gilts the following day helped the market to relax a little.

The US economic statistics had no more impact than the UK numbers, even though several of them pointed to greater optimism in the residential property market. Existing Home Sales (+5%), the Housing Price Index (+2%), weekly mortgage applications (+32%) and New Home Sales (+5%) all registered improvements. There is a sensation that analysts would love to call a turn to the US property market’s long downward trend but they dare not do so on the back of just one month’s data.

There was similar nervousness about the latest rescue package, the Public-Private Partnership Investment Programme. The aim of the scheme is to encourage private investors to buy the “toxic assets” that have been giving the banks a headache. If they do, the government will subsidise a significant chunk of the purchase price in return for a modest share of any profits. Bond and equity markets took a shine to the plan but it made the FX market nervous about potentially negative effects on the US dollar.

The dollar started to come back into its own after Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman offered his opinion that the government will eventually have to “seize” big banks as the economic and financial crisis deepens. “In the end we’ll come to it,” he said. Although investors had earlier seemed to desert the dollar as a safe-haven currency they suddenly decided they could not do without it after all. There was more of the same after Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said in a TV interview on Sunday that “some banks are going to need some large amounts of assistance.” His comments sounded suspiciously similar to those of Professor Krugman and sparked another rush for cover.

The focus this week will be on the G20 meeting and what it might achieve. Most observers are not unduly optimistic about the outcome. They are more interested in guessing what new stumbling blocks the meeting might throw up. Already on the unofficial agenda is the status of the US dollar as de facto global reserve currency. China would like to see greater use of the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights - a suggestion to which Secretary Geithner apparently does not object - and Russia would like to see a partial return to the Gold Standard. There will doubtless be more off-the-wall proposals as the week progresses.

The dollar’s return to favour has been quite swift, taking it 4% higher against the pound and adding 4.5% to its value against the euro since the early part of last week. Although it could go further, the market’s readiness to change direction at the drop of a hat has become very obvious in the last couple of weeks. Buyers of the dollar should therefore hedge their exposure, fixing a price for half of whatever they need. If price certainty is essential there is no alternative but to cover the whole amount. Otherwise use a stop order to protect the uncovered portion in case another disaster strikes the pound.

For more information and expert guidance on the currency markets, call Moneycorp today.

Laura McLoughlin - Laura.McLoughlin@moneycorp.com
Regional Manager - Florida

Moneycorp Inc
7380 Sand Lake Road
Suite 410
Orlando
Florida 32819

TEL: +1 407 352 5890
FAX: +1 407 352 5893

http://www.moneycorp.com

Economic Recovery in the UK beggining the end of this year?

According to a recent article in the Financial Times the UK economy should begin to recover by the end of this year. The huge monetary and fiscal provisions, combined with sharp falls in commodity prices, will help boost household and business spending, a senior Bank of England official predicted.

Spencer Dale, chief economist at the Bank and a member of its rate-setting monetary policy committee, made the remarks at a meeting of the Association of British Insurers, a group whose members have been hit by the sharp fall in stock markets and the crunch in credit markets.

“As we go through 2009, I believe it is most likely that the pace at which output is contracting will ease and that we will see some signs of recovery by around the turn of this year,” Mr Dale told the group.

He went on to say that the causes of the current recession were different from previous recessions and that its actual path was not known. “There is huge uncertainty about the precise form and timing of the recovery and so this central path should be treated with a healthy degree of scepticism.”

Mr Dale said the Bank would keep in place its unconventional exercise of monetary policy (known as quantitative easing) until it became apparent that it had succeeded in bringing inflation back to its annual 2 per cent medium-term target.